Pergamon acropolis ( Pergamum photos )

Pergamon is also known as Bergama (road signs) and old Pergamum. Roman marble stones wound up in lime kilns or were moved to museums, so what remains is a genuine Hellenistic acropolis of buildings before the Romans came, with one major exception.

Homer and Herodotus studied and wrote here, and the library was the 2nd largest in the world, next to Alexandria's, with over 200,000 books. When Egypt refused to export more papyrus to old Pergamum, people here invented parchment (Latin "Pergamem"="From Pergamum"), using calfskin.

The last King willed the land and library to Rome, and Marc Anthony gave the library's treasures to Cleopatra for the Library of Alexandria, after Julius Caesar inadvertently burned down the latter. The library at Pergamon is now just a small pile of stones. But the Temple of Trajan and the very steep large theater are striking sights.